


Left for Ruin

by sandersonsister



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Yagami Light Is Not Kira (Death Note), Light at Wammy House, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25516027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandersonsister/pseuds/sandersonsister
Summary: Light's life takes a different turn when his family is killed when he is eight years old. Two years later, he finds himself at Wammy House and in the competition to be the next L.
Relationships: L/Yagami Light
Comments: 15
Kudos: 101





	1. Chapter One

All that Light remembered was screaming and the color red. He was told later that he was found hiding inside a cupboard. That his hands were planted over his ears and his eyes were tightly closed. The outside of the cupboard was stained red and his mothers’ body was pressed against it, keeping Light locked inside.

His little sister, who had been hidden in the cupboard beside his own, had her throat slit.

His father was mutilated in his parent’s bedroom.

He stayed there for hours. He was curled up, arms wrapped around the legs he had pulled up to his chest as he struggled to keep silent. Even after the house itself fell silent, after he knew that his family was dead, Light cried silently.

After he was found, after the police pulled his mothers body away from the cupboard and they realized that Light was missing and they mounted a full search, he was sent to an orphanage. His father did not have any family and his mother hadn’t spoken to her older sister in years. The woman had refused to take him in.

Light hated the orphanage. The other kids were just so…so dumb. Whenever Light spoke to them, they would just stare at him blankly before turning to talk to someone else. Even the older kids would corner him in secluded areas and ‘teach him a lesson’ about ‘thinking he knows everything’. The workers in the orphanage would just sigh as they bandaged his wounds and tell him the other kids would leave him alone if he kept his mouth shut.

The thought disgusted him. He was a child, only eight years old when his parents were killed. He was taken to an unfamiliar place and his intelligence, which his parents and teachers had always praised, seemed to be taken as a bad thing. And the adults, who should have at least tried to protect him from the teenagers, merely told him to stop showing off.

Light hated it.

He hated the fact that he checked for updates on his family’s case daily and there was never anything knew. He hated that he was going to a school where he sat in boredom day after day because he had been doing the material since he was four. He hated the fact that he hadn’t spoken to his friends since he had been taken to the orphanage and none of the kids he knew now would even talk to him.

And he truly hated that, two years after his parents and younger sister were killed, no one even remembered their names. The case fell out of the public mind, there were no more articles, no more reports on television, no leads…there was nothing.

Light vowed that he would make sure that whoever killed them would be found. No matter how long it took.

And then they would pay.

He was ten when a man Light had never seen appeared at the orphanage. Light, who had been reading a book in the corner of the meeting room, glanced up warily as the head of the orphanage and the stranger walked into the room.

“Light, I’ve told you to either read in the playroom or your bedroom. This room is for-“

“The playroom is too loud and the others take the book if I read in the bedroom,” Light responded bluntly, narrowing his eyes at the man. They had had this discussion multiple times over the past two years.

“So, this is Light!” The stranger said brightly, walking forward and holding his hand out. Light blinked at it and furrowed his eyebrows. Ah. They shook hands in some countries, right? He wasn’t exactly sure how it worked, but he had read about it. Hesitantly, Light held out his own hand. The old man laughed and lightly gripped it, shaking it up and down lightly before letting go. “I’m sure it’ll be fine for him to stay. The meeting is about him, after all.”

The headmaster cleared his throat and shot a glare in Light’s direction but the boy wasn’t paying him any attention. Instead, he closed his book and stared at the old man, trying to figure out why he would be there to speak about him. The man just continued to smile, not giving anything away from his facial expression.

Light didn’t trust it.

“My name is Quillish Wammy,” the old man said, taking a seat at the large table and gesturing for Light to do the same. Light inwardly cackled at the fact that the Headmaster was left standing and turning a charming shade of purple. “I run an orphanage,” Light scowled, no longer interested in the conversation, “an orphanage that holds some of the brightest minds in the world,” oh, alright. Maybe he was a little interested. “I have heard much about you and I would like you to take our entrance exam.”

“I’ll do it.”

__________________________

“Things are a bit different here than what you are used to,” the man, Roger, told Light bluntly the moment he was brought into the office of his new home a little more than a month after his conversation with Quillish Wammy. “I’m sure Quillish explained that we hold some of the brightest minds in the world and we polish their natural potential. Many of the children who are raised here go on to have high profile careers. However, we believe that all of our children need to start out on an even playing field, as it were.”

“I understand.”

“I’m sure,” Roger said dryly. “In some cases, discretion is your closest ally. We ask that you do not speak to anyone about your background. Wammy House only holds twenty-six children and each of them are assigned a letter. You can choose a name or word based on that letter for others to call you. Many of the children choose a word that defines them. For instance, I chooses to go by the name Index. Currently, the letters K and N are open. You may choose whichever you want.”

Light blinked at the new information. He was expected to give up his name? Well, he supposed he could see the reason why. Just by giving others his name they were able to look up information about him. That was how children at his old orphanage became aware of his family’s murder and used it against him at every opportunity. A new, fresh start for the twenty-six children deemed worthy of entering Wammy House. Still, he didn’t want to give up the name his parents had given him completely. Not when it was all he had left. “K,” he said finally. “Kirakira.” It meant shining. Similar enough.

Roger noted the information down on the notepad in front of him. “You will be sharing a room with Index. He will be assigned to show you the grounds and you will shadow him at least the first few days until you know the daily schedule. This is a list of rules that you are expected to follow,” the man said, handing Light a laminated pamphlet. “Do not break them and you will not end up in my office again. Your belongings have been taken to your room. Index will show you the way.” Roger stood and pulled open the door, motioning for someone to come into the room. The boy that entered seemed to be a couple of years older than Light. He had dark coloring, dark brown eyes, and a bright smile as his eyes landed on Light. “Index, this is Kirakira. Please escort him to your room.”

“Alright,” the boy agreed. “Nice to meet you, Kirakira.”

“You as well,” Light replied, shaking the offered hand. He had a feeling he would be growing used to these handshakes.

“Welcome to Wammy House,” Roger intoned. “We’re happy to have you.”

The way the man slammed the door closed after the words didn’t exactly make Light feel very welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

“Don’t worry about him,” Index laughed, smiling as he lightly placed a hand on Light’s shoulder. “Roger is famous for not actually liking children, which is hilarious when he’s head of an orphanage.”

“Hilarious,” Light agreed sarcastically and the boy’s smile grew.

“So, you want me to take you straight to our room first and show you around later or do the tour now and end at our room? The staff already brought your bags up. I had them put them on your bed.”

Light frowned. He wasn’t comfortable leaving his few possessions unattended for a long period of time, not after so many of them had disappeared at his previous “home”, but he also wanted to make sure he would be able to find his way around as quickly as possible. “Tour,” he decided and Index smiled again.

“Sure! Alright, well, right now we’re at Rogers office, but you already know that…” Index led him out of Rogers office and down the hall, stating that Rogers office started the school portion of the orphanage. He took him through the different classroom areas and then down to the dining hall. He showed him where the kitchens were and whispered that the kitchen staff were really prickly about them getting food outside of scheduled meal times but it was easy to sneak in after they left for the night. He then took Light to the library. He explained that the library is what separated the two sections of the orphanage. Once they passed through a large, wooden door, the atmosphere completely changed. Where there had been dark wood floors, white walls, and elaborate furniture, this section had carpet, bright colors, and worn, comfortable looking sofas and chairs. “No one except the residents and the care staff are allowed in this section,” Index explained as he looked at the various children spread throughout the room. Some were laughing and talking loudly, others were reading. There was a girl drawing in the corner. All of the paused to watch as Index led Light through the room, Index just laughing and waving as they made their way toward a far hallway. “Downstairs is kind of a common area,” Index explained. “That was the lounge. We have a toy room, game room, hobby room, movie room…basically anything you can think of to keep us entertained when we aren’t working. All of the bedrooms are upstairs. Girls up the right staircase, boys on the left,” he motioned toward the stairs they began to use. “Rooms are based on your letter. A rooms with B, D rooms with E, and so on-“

“What about C?” Hadn’t Roger said the only letters open were K and N?

“C rooms with H. Like I said, genders are separated. Uh, C, H, J, Q, and W are girls. W has her own room at the moment. I did too until you joined…uh, sometimes they get messed up. Like when the last J left. He was my roommate and I would have roomed with the new J but that ended up being a girl, so she moved in with Q and I didn’t have a roommate.”

“So, I should have moved in with L?”

“Wh- oh, no. There is no L. I mean, there is an L but not a student. I’ll explain it later. Basically, we always have at least one open space because there are 25 spaces open. L’s letter is retired…”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does! I promise! Let’s just get to our room and I’ll explain it!”

When they finally got to their room, another wooden door with a I and K on the door, there was another boy standing there waiting. “Index!” The boy said happily, bounding over to them and smiling up at Light’s roommate. “I’ve been waiting forever! Oh, is this him? Hi! I’m Ever! You’re so lucky that Index had a space open in his room! If not, you would have had to room with Mello and no one wants to room with Mello-“

“Hey, don’t be mean,” Index chastised, his smile falling slightly for the first time since Light had met him. “Mello’s just a kid. Give him some slack.”

“We’re all just kids!”

“Yeah, well, Mello’s a _little_ kid.”

Ever laughed loudly as Index pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. Oh. A key. Light had never had a key at his previous orphanage. Of course, he had also shared a room with four other boys. “Don’t let him hear you say that,” Index chuckled as he pushed the door open. “Everything on the right is yours, Kirakira.”

Light nodded and walked into the room, his eyes growing wide when he saw how large it was. There were two beds, each pushed against a wall opposite of one another. Two desks, beside each other opposite from the door. Bookshelves on either side of the door. Two wardrobes at the foot of the beds.

Light didn’t even have enough possessions to fill all this space up.

“Okay, so,” Index started, throwing himself down onto the bed on the left that was covered with a bright blue blanket. “The staff will get you anything you need, within reason. Things like blankets, pillows, clothes… just write down what you want and the sizes and they’ll get it. We each get an allowance each month. Basically, we all start out with a certain amount based on ages, then it gets deducted if you do something you aren’t supposed to. Uh, Roger gave you a list of rules, right? So yeah, break any of those and you lose money. At the end of the month, we get an alert of how much we have in our account. If you want something special, like a video game or book or something that we don’t have here, it comes out of your account. A lot of the older kids don’t end up spending a lot of their money because they want it for when they move out.”

“That’s…strange,” Light commented, not having heard of an orphanage doing something like that.

“Yeah, it is! But it’s awesome!” Ever cut in, bouncing from where he was sitting on Index’s bed.

The other boy rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but this place is different. This is the whole L thing. Uh, have you ever heard of L? He’s a detective. The best detective. He lived here and started solving cases when he was our age. Or younger. Wammy, the owner of the orphanage, saw how great L was and decided to create a program to…create his successor. That’s the point of this place. We’re all in the running to become L’s successor.”

L’s successor? A great detective?

He couldn’t be that great. He hadn’t found the people that killed Light’s parents.

“So, we have class each week and every Friday is a test day. Rankings are posted on Saturdays at noon. The top three have special lessons on Saturday nights. If you aren’t interested in becoming the next L, you can opt out of the program.”

“I did!” Ever yelled out, raising his hand. “They don’t kick you out or anything if you decide you don’t want to be part of it. You still get the same education and you still get ranked, you just don’t have to be part of the succession. Wammy House is really good at helping people that leave go to college or get jobs or whatever they want to do! K, the last one, he dropped out of the program when he was fifteen but stayed until he was eighteen and graduated. Then he went to Oxford! He’s going to be a lawyer!”

“I see,” Light breathed, his eyes shining as he thought about becoming L’s successor. He could find the people that had killed his parents and his sister. He could make sure they never did something like that to anyone else. He could bring people that broke the law to justice.

He just had to win.

“So, you’ll join in on the rankings next week,” Index said, his eyes watching Light carefully.

“Yeah, but the rankings have been pretty steady!” Ever said brightly. “The only change has been bcause of Mello…you know, the kid I talked about earlier? L found him somewhere, I don’t know where Mello never told us, and brought him here! He didn’t go to another orphanage first or get tested or anything. L just ordered him to be brought here. It was a mess! Especially since he’s so young! But, yeah, he proved pretty quickly that L was right to send him here…I mean, he’s pretty far up and-“

“Anyway,” Index said loudly, cutting his friend off. “The dining hall just opened. It’s always best to get there early or you end up with the leftovers.” He began to push up off his bed, only to get pushed down as his friend scrambled up and knocked him over as he did so.

“Oh, sorry!”

“Sure,” Index laughed, shaking his head and finally standing. “Kirakira, you coming with us?”

“Yes,” Light agreed. He was sure he would be able to find the dining hall on his own but he would follow Index this once to make sure. And to see how things worked in this strange place.

Index smiled again and strode toward the door, only to pause. “Oh. Your key is in the top drawer of your desk. Keep the door locked when you aren’t in, okay? I mean, most people here wouldn’t take your things or anything but that doesn’t mean they wont move things around or put something in your bed.”

Light blinked at the odd words but nodded and opened the desk drawer to remove the room key. He slid it into his pocket and then followed after Index and Ever, making sure the door was locked behind him. Ever kept up a lively conversation with himself as Light and Index followed after him, Index shaking his head and smiling fondly at the other boy as he did so. Light couldn’t help but wonder if the other people in this place were just as odd as these two or if he just had terrible luck.

The dining area had multiple round tables and a large, buffet like table at the front. There was already a small line of five kids and teenagers grabbing various foods while another few were already sitting at the tables. Ever yelled in happiness, earning himself eye rolls from a few people in the room, and ran forward toward the food. Index merely sighed and continued forward. “That’s A and B,” he said lowly, gesturing to two teenagers who looked about Index’s age, maybe a bit older. Light frowned, realizing he actually didn’t know how old his roommate was. Definitely a teenager. Ever seemed a bit younger but Light was fairly sure he was still older than Light’s ten years of age. “Ace is first in the rankings. Beyond is second. They’ve kept those positions for a couple of years now.”

Light blinked in interest and focused on the two teenagers once again. One of the boys had short, light brown hair and dark brown eyes. Despite the fact that he was smiling at the other boy, Light couldn’t help but think that he looked tired. The other had messy, dark hair and skin so pale he almost looked sick. It was while Light was looking at him that the boy’s eyes snapped up to meet his own and Light couldn’t hold back his gasp. His eyes were red.

“Yeah, Beyond is a bit unnerving,” Index muttered lowly as he placed his hands on Light’s shoulders and steered him over to where Ever was waiting impatiently. “He isn’t scary when you get to know him. Well, not usually. It’s best to be around him when he’s around A. Which is almost all the time, so it’s fine.”

What an odd thing to say. Why would he need to make sure Beyond was around A before speaking to him if he wasn’t ‘scary’? It didn’t add up. Light was about to question Index further but loud screaming cut him off. Light’s eyes widened in shock as they landed on a small child. He was probably only five or six with bright blond hair. He stood at the front of the food line, screaming at the woman behind the table. Light’s mouth dropped when he heard the language coming out of the angelic looking child’s mouth.

“Shit,” Index sighed.

Ever giggled as he took a step back. “Told you it was a good thing you didn’t have to room with Mello.”

_This_ was Mello? The kid that this mystical L had brought here?

He was just a spoiled brat.

The yells fell silent as A suddenly appeared in front of the boy, dropping down to his knees and speaking in a low tone. Mello scowled and crossed his arms over his chest but his eyes didn’t leave the teenagers face. Light wished he was close enough that he could actually hear what was being said. A stopped speaking and looked at Mello expectantly. After a moment’s pause, the blond nodded and A smiled before pushing himself to his feet. He spoke to the woman behind the table, earning himself a loud sigh in response, but then the woman turned and walked through the door that led to the kitchen. She came back a few seconds later with a chocolate bar in her hand that she passed to A. A nodded in thanks and then pointed at the food. Mello scowled but grabbed a plate, taking a little of whatever was in front of him. A shook his head and Mello rolled his eyes before taking a bit more. It was only then that A nodded and walked back over to his previous seat, Mello trailing after him.

“Well,” Ever laughed, shaking his head. “Welcome to Wammy House!”


End file.
